CanisLucidus

This was good fun, in spite of failing at nearly everything I tried, becoming obsessed with a hopeless task, and losing my pants.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #24: Pants Gone with the Wind

Wife has sent me to a restaurant to find out whether they recycle "#19 plastic". I'm just about to ask the cashier this inane recycling question when I see that a nearby table has our diaper bag and Wife's wallet sitting unguarded on top of it. I hurry over to pick all this stuff up and see Wife herself standing a few feet away. I recognize all of this for the weird nonsense that it is and tell Wife that I'm having a lucid dream. "Okay," she says, and wanders off.

I turn back toward the cashier to find that she and the register are gone, replaced by a bunch of school lunch tables jammed together in a tight rectangle. I skirt around these and head to the back of the cafeteria. High up, a bit outside of my reach is a large window showing an overcast day outside. I float up in order to phase through it like I did last dream but this time my hands just bounce off of it. I float back down to the ground and look for a door, not wanting get hung up on this.

There's a pair of doors equipped with crash bars to my left. I shove my way through and emerge outside under a cloudy, gray sky. To the right, I see a huge gathering of runners and spectators for some sort of foot race. I'm intrigued and I jog toward it, deciding that I want to compete.

I become very aware of my clothing as I run and I notice that I'm wearing shorts without a belt. The shorts are too big for me and they keep trying to slide down off of my hips. I hike them up once and then do my best to ignore them. I'm surprised to find that I'm also wearing some kind of baseball cap. I remove it and see that it's black with a Papa John's style logo that instead reads "Papa Go's". (I know something's wrong with this name but can't figure out what.)

The race starts when I'm about 30 feet away, runners ranging from hardcore 30-year-olds to 4-year-old kids setting off on the race. They stream through a huge pizza-decorated starting banner that reads "The Papa Go's Race". Since I want to win and also wow the crowd I take to the air, flying about 20 feet up. But the moment that I catch up with the other runners, a sharp gust of wind kicks up against me, stopping me dead.

I'm determined to participate in this race so I stubbornly imagine a fresh wind blowing from the opposite direction. This gives me a huge, exhilarating kick forward. But before long, the current of wind that's against me shoves back even harder and I'm stuck again. I force my own wind to blow even harder but the opposing wind rises to a shrieking gale.

I feel stubborn and unbeatable, though, and I keep pouring on more power. But the howling wind rips my pants away and I suddenly feel much, much less "unstoppable" with no pants. Tears stream from the corners of my eyes and cold wind blasts down my throat. Trees are swaying crazily below me and DCs are running in panic. It dawns on me that I've started something I can't finish. Moments later, I'm awake.